In a shocking development that makes the controversial Minneapolis Rep perhaps the first member of Congress to suffer the death of a parent linked to the coronavirus, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted late Monday night that her father, with whom she migrated to the US during the mid-1990s, had passed away.
Per Politico, Omar and her father Nur Mohamed came to the US as refugees in 1995 from Somalia during that country’s civil war. They eventually settled in Minneapolis, where Omar launched her political career.
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
Surely we belong to God and to him shall we return.
It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father, Nur Omar Mohamed. No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him. pic.twitter.com/gb7q0gMXG2
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 16, 2020
Alongside Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Omar in November 2018 became one of the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress.
Several members of Congress have either tested positive for the virus, or opted to self-isolate after purportedly being exposed to it.
